Charlotte’s Web
Yesterday was a blur of normal day activities, baking bread, washing diapers, math, very short naps for the babe, lots of snuggles and reading. The day finished off with all of us going to the local community college for a musical performance of Charlotte’s Web. My kids loved it, my oldest cracking up quite a few times. It was a busy, very long day, and by the time I got the babe to sleep it was 10:00, time for me to go to bed.
Today I’m off with the babe for a day of some fun with my mom, hopefully getting some more Christmas cookies baked and in the freezer (all part of my plan to not go insane in December). I just wish that by turning the clocks back tonight that it really meant that I’d get an extra hour of sleep, in reality it just means the kids are up an hour earlier.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
I love bread pudding, no, I really love bread pudding. I think it is the one desert that I just cannot pass up, though I am a bit of a purist. I don’t usually like things added to it or unusual flavours, this is the one exception. I love that it tastes like autumn and is not overly sweet. I don’t feel bad at all about letting my kids eat big servings as it’s full of yummy goodness and not that much sugar. In fact, when I gave some to the babe, she started doing a happy dance with a big grin plastered onto her face. Speaking of the babe, she has not been settling down well at night (she has never been a good sleeper) and she has not been staying asleep well, so I need to go finish up that tutorial for the little fabric birdy while my hubby has all the kiddos occupied since my normal blogging time (evening after the kids are in bed) is shot helping the babe get some rest. Here’s the recipe, I hope you enjoy!
Here is the tutorial for this sweet little birdy. I have not done a tutorial before so I hope this one is ok. Please make as many as you want for personal use, but please do not sell any birdies made from this pattern. Let me know if there are any problems with the tutorial and I’ll see what I can do. I crocheted chains for the hanging loop and legs, but if you don’t know how or don’t want to, you could use any kind of ribbon or string. Hope you enjoy, I’d love to see any birdies you make.
Some weeks it seems as though I don’t have a spare minute to breathe let alone craft, but after going for a while not creating anything, I get a serious itch. I am working on decorating my girl’s room and this is one project for it, a sweet little fabric bird. It was so windy today I had a really difficult time photographing him, he just wanted to fly away, so the picture is not brilliant. He is a sweetie though. I used a vintage sheet I picked up at a thrift store, and some vintage buttons. The wing is made from some fabric from one of the babe’s dresses that she outgrew. He has cute little crochet legs and wooden button feet. I really enjoyed working with vintage fabrics, buttons, cotton yarn, an alpaca blend yarn and hand embroidering as well. I think that is a lot of his charm is that he is a hodgepodge of materials. I’m hoping to have a tutorial up by tomorrow in case anybody wants to make their own cute birdy. 
It’s a very rare time when Hubby and I get a day by ourselves, but my mom generously offered to watch the three bigger kids while we took the babe and went off for the day. As anybody with kids knows, sometimes it is really hard to get an adult conversation in while they are still awake. Since the babe doesn’t talk yet, we were able to spend the whole day talking, while we were actually awake enough to think straight. We drove 40 minutes away to a town that has a few nice things to do. On the way we saw this fantastic barn and some gorgeous trees (most of the ones where we live went straight from green to dead because of all the snow, no autumn colours).
We walked around the historic downtown for quite a while and stopped at a local brew pub for a quick lunch. It was so nice to be able to get out in the fresh air, it was a gorgeous 70°, and do lots of walking and talking. After some more walking we went to a bookstore where we were able to leisurely browse through some books and magazines until I almost jumped out of my skin as a mouse scurried by my feet. I do not like mice, I do not do well around mice, mice are not my friends. I have an irrational fear of them and seeing this little guy put me on edge. They say that the best way to face your fears is to jump headfirst, right? I’m seriously considering going to a pet shop to hold the mice because I really do not like being controlled (through my fear) by these little guys. Anyway, that’s another story…
On the way home we saw a bunch of buffalo, they are truly magnificent creatures. Then we passed one of the windmill farms near us. Some people complain that they are an eyesore, but personally, I think they are beautiful and calming. I often think it would be nice to grab a blanket and a book and sit in the middle of a windmill farm. Not really a possibility, but still.
Oh, and on Sunday I tackled one little project. I hung some art wires (well, cotton yarn) for the boys to hang some of their artwork. I’ve been meaning to do this for some time, but I just never got around to it. Now for less than a quarter, the boys have somewhere to arrange their never ending supply of artwork, and it adds some nice colour to their walls as well.
I’ve got lots planned for this week, so it if goes according to plan, I’ll have several fun things to share with you. 
Bear with me while I show you a couple more photos of the sky. I miss a lot of things out here on the prairie, hills, trees, the sea, but one thing I love is the sky. You can see for miles and miles, and the sky seems as though it never ends. This is particularly beautiful when it comes to sunrises and sunsets. I was washing up after supper when I looked out the window, and the sky was pink. I grabbed my camera and went for a quick walk up the road. Isn’t it gorgeous? I just love the sky out here. It only took about ten minutes for the sun to go down, and as I got back to the house I turned around and this is what I saw. 
My five year old loves the moon, and she can spot it whenever it is out. Well, I’m off tomorrow for a full day “date” with my hubby (and baby) while my mom watches the 3 bigger kids. This is a very rare occasion and I intend to fully enjoy it. Have a great weekend, I’ll see you on Monday.
I’ve decided we don’t walk nearly enough. When I was a girl and we lived in England, we walked all the time. If we could walk instead of drive, we did. We walked to and from school every morning, and I’m pretty sure it was 45 minutes each way. I think we miss so much by not walking more, the fresh air, exercise, and sunshine does the body and mind such good.
Yesterday was a bit of a hectic day with normal day to day stuff and then the babe had a well-baby appointment. She was pretty fussy after some vaccinations, so when we got home and had an hour before supper, I bundled everybody up and headed outside.
Most of what we saw wasn’t anything spectacular, just normal things like rocks on the roadside, flowers that had been wiped out by the snow and frost, yet still remained beautiful in their own way. 
Cracks in the road and puddles to jump in were next on the walk.
There was nothing extraordinary about what we saw, but that’s where I think the magic comes in. It was really nice to just be outdoors. The sunshine, crisp cool air, exercise and just every day nature was making everybody feel better. I felt less stressed, the babe calmed down, and the bigger kids had a great time running around and just being themselves.
This view, however, was spectacular. It is what we see at the end of our road, and was the perfect ending to a refreshing, energizing walk. We were able to go home, eat supper, and settle all of the little ones down to bed, where they fell fast asleep, exhausted and content.
One way that we have tried to consume less and save on the budget is by using hankies. I’ve had lots of fun trying to build up a collection. I have a good start, but if everyone came down with colds at the same time, we might be a tad short. I have some from when we lived in Japan, one from a friend in New Zealand, a couple from my great grandmother, and the rest have been picked up at thrift and antique stores. 
I’ve got a couple with some beautifully crocheted edges and several with some gorgeous embroidery. I even found a cute little child’s hanky.
The other day when I was out birthday shopping with my mom, I found this beautiful smoky brown hand embroidered hanky which would be great for using at more solemn occasions. My new favourite is this hanky with pink and brown houses.
Then of course there are plenty of floral hankies as well.
I don’t usually pay more than one dollar for a hanky, so over time that is significantly less money than buying boxes of tissues. As far as laundry goes, with the amount of laundry that six people generate, a couple dozen hankies really doesn’t add much. Besides, it’s so much more fun having a colourful hanky in your pocket, and so much softer on your nose. I love collecting them and keeping my eye out wherever I go, hoping to find some new ones. There are so many beautiful hankies out there, but a lot of them are really fragile so I try to only get ones that can handle some serious nose blowing. Using hankies is just one small way we try to consume and discard less.
